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Danny Burton is a 30-ish carefree single guy who has watched most of his friends move on to serious relationships. When his last remaining friend Shannon moves out to get married, Danny searches for a new roommate. A promising candidate is Justin, the owner of Black Eyes Bar in the Ferndale section of metropolitan Detroit (frequently mispronounced "Black Guys Bar"). Justin and his friends – the nerdy Burski, oddball Shelly, and recently out-of-the-closet gay guy Brett – all have certain qualities that make them appear "undateable". While Danny himself has good luck getting women into bed, he is unable or unwilling to form a lasting commitment with any of them. Danny's attractive sister, Leslie, has similar fears about being undateable, having the "baggage" of being a mid-30's divorcee.

NBC purchased the script from Bill Lawrence in October 2012.[6][10] Casting for the pilot began in early 2013, with Brent Morin and Rick Glassman being cast in February and Bianca Kajlich and Chris D'Elia being cast in March.[11][12][13][14] Matthew Wilkas was also cast in March as Brett, Justin's gay friend.[15]Aly Michalka was originally cast as Maddie, a waitress in Justin's bar and Justin's love interest, but she left the show in April 2013 and was replaced with Briga Heelan in a guest star role as the similar character Nicki.[16][17]

In May 2013, NBC placed a series order for Undateable.[18] After the series was ordered, Wilkas left and was replaced with David Fynn in the role of Brett.[19] When both Undateable and Ground Floor, which stars Heelan, were picked up as series, Megan Park was cast to replace Heelan in the Nicki role.[20] However, by September of that year, the producers were able to arrange the schedules of the two shows so that Heelan could appear on Undateable as Nicki on a recurring basis, and she replaced Park.[21]

In March 2014, Lawrence, Morin, Glassman, Funches, and D'Elia launched an 8-city comedy tour to promote the show.[22][23][24]

Undateable has been met with mixed to negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show holds a 38% rating, based on 16 reviews, with the consensus reading: "Largely bereft of originality or humor, Undateable is underwhelming." Despite the critics' reviews, the show has a 92% audience score on the site.[25] Similarly on Metacritic, the show has a score of 50 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[26]